


The Death of Asgard

by the_nerdiestwitch



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Closure, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 13:27:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14497959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_nerdiestwitch/pseuds/the_nerdiestwitch
Summary: MAJOR SPOILER WARNING- set right after the events of Infinity War part 1; I thought after everything he's been through, Thor needed some closure and the rest of the Avengers join in.Update; I wrote this just after the end of Infinity War, under the assumption that some characters were still alive and other events (like Tony's arrival) hadn't happened yet. I guess it's sort of an au. Enjoy!





	The Death of Asgard

Death wasn’t something to be feared on Asgard. It was expected, especially among warriors, and those who fell in battle were celebrated, not mourned. But the moment Thanos snapped his fingers, Thor’s insides turned cold. “What did you do?” He demanded, already dreading the answer. “What did you do?!” The titan just smiled and disappeared in a swirl of blue and black.  
  
Time seemed to stand still in the moment that followed, Thor and Rogers exchanging a worried glance. No, not just worried. For perhaps the first time, the god saw real fear in Rogers’ eyes and no doubt it was reflected in his own. A voice broke the silence, scared and confused. “Steve?” It was a child’s fearful question, coming from the mouth of Rogers’ friend with the metal arm. As they all watched, the man stumbled forward into a cloud of ash. With slow, deliberate steps, Rogers approached the pile, crouched next to it, touched the ashes gently as if he could somehow find his friend among them.  
  
Another voice broke the silence from a few yards away; Thor turned just in time to see the king’s ashes floating away to reveal a wailing general. Panic rising in his throat, Thor turned and watched as Wanda, then Sam further away, then Tree, were swept away by the breeze. The general’s wail gradually faded away into chaotic sobs. The rest of them were silent, frozen.  
  
When Rogers failed to move, failed to even look at Natasha when she asked for guidance, Thor stepped forward. Asgardians pushed their emotions down until they could be used in battle, so Thor forced himself to set aside the grief and rage and try to be the king he once was. “Rogers,” he said quietly, gently pulling the soldier to his feet. “We need to go.”  
  
“We can’t leave him,” Rogers mumbled, voice half confused, half full of grief.  
  
“We must. There’s nothing more we can do for him.” Thor looked up at Natasha, glancing pointedly towards the grieving general. She received the message with a nod and brought the woman gently to her feet. With those that could still function guiding those that couldn’t, Thor led the harried group across the battlefield and back to the too-quiet palace.  
  
They were greeted almost immediately by the king’s sister, who looked from Thor to the general with fading hope in her eyes. A whimper escaped and then she and the general fell into each other, crying and holding each other as though they were last people on Earth. A large man with kind eyes eventually stepped forward to guide them away, leaving Thor with the rest of the team in silence. He took that moment to look them over, hoping that anyone would step forward with an idea, a plan, a word of encouragement. Rogers still stared into space, looking at something no one else could see. Natasha had begun to tremble, eyes nearly as vacant as Rogers’. Banner and Stark’s friend, who somewhere along the way had lost their armor, were conversing quietly, shaking their heads and looking very lost. The rabbit was pacing, fiddling with some kind of communicator and muttering furiously to himself. None of them were in any shape lead. Neither was Thor, for that matter, but there were precious few other options.  
  
“Banner,” Thor called. “Take Rogers to the infirmary or somewhere quiet. Make sure he is cared for.” The other man nodded, and guided Rogers away. For his part, Rogers went without any sign of protest. “Stark’s friend-”  
  
“Rhodey,” he interrupted.  
  
“Rhodey then. Call your leaders and tell them what has occured here today. Give them any information they need, and try to keep them as up to date as you can.” Rhodey nodded and turned to his phone, already speaking to someone as Thor turned to the last member of their original team. “Natasha.” She looked up as he spoke, squaring herself for his orders. “Out of all of us, you know the others the best. Call Barton, Fury, anyone you can think of that could give us aid. If we mean to go after Thanos, we will need all the force we can muster.”  
  
Natasha’s eyes sharpened. “Do you really think we can win? We threw everything we could at him, and he just shook it off like it was nothing.”  
  
“Stark once explained to me that if we cannot save the Earth then we must avenge it, hence his chosen name for us. If nothing else, our last act should be to ensure Thanos regrets his decision to cross us for the rest of his life.”  
  
“Fair enough,” she nodded. “I can think of a few people who’d feel the same way.” Natasha strode away, leaving only one left. The rabbit, Rocket he called himself, stared hard at his communicator and looked as though he was trying not to cry but failing.  
  
“I am sorry about your friend. He was an admirable warrior.” Thor didn’t know much about Tree or Rocket, but the one thing that was plain as day was that they were close. “Your other friends, do you know…?” The question didn’t need to be finished. Rocket was already shaking his head. “Come then. Let us see if we cannot contact them.” He led the rabbit up to the highest tower of the palace, which was almost unsurprisingly unguarded. With all that had happened, keeping watch over empty rooms seemed pointless. The rabbit sat near the edge of the balcony and began working the dials and buttons on his device furiously. Thor sat next to him and looked out over the city, where even this high he could hear screams and cries from those that had lost someone in the aftermath. “Tree… was he your son?” Thor asked when he finally couldn’t take the screaming silence anymore.  
  
“Might as well be. Have been. We met when he was almost fully grown, but he needed someone to look out for him and I guess I kinda needed someone too. Then when he had to regrow himself, it was like I...we...raised him all over again. Always yelling at him to spit out whatever disgusting thing he tried to eat, picking up his dead leaves all over the ship...telling him to get off that stupid video game or I’d kill him.” Rocket sniffed again and wiped his eyes. “I was a crappy parent.”  
  
“Maybe,” Thor replied quietly. “But you were not the worst. Not by far.” They sat together for what could’ve been hours. As time passed, Rocket grew more frustrated and desperate. The sun began to set on the wailing city, and with a shout Rocket threw the device against the wall and buried his head in his hands.  
  
“They’re gone. They would’ve replied by now if they weren’t.” Thor opened his mouth to say something, anything, but what could he possibly say? Instead he simply patted the rabbit behind the ears in soft, gentle strokes. Rocket didn’t move except for his quiet hiccuping sobs. After a while, they subsided into even snores, punctuated by the occasional shaky breath. He’d curled completely in on himself, bushy tail covering his face, and that was how Thor left him in that high tower.  
  
He had no idea what time it was, but it was late. Everyone else had gone to sleep, or at least was pretending to, except for the occasional dedicated guard. One of them helpfully directed Thor to the kitchens and, with no one left to look after, he decided to get a drink. One bottle turned into two, then four, then more than he could count as he steeled himself for what he knew he had to do next.  
  
Wood was not in short supply out here in the jungle, and within an hour or two Thor had gathered enough. The dry wood, sprinkled with alcohol, went up in an instant and the heat sent him stumbling back. From his pocket he withdrew the lock of Loki’s hair he’d kept, even after he’d found out his brother was alive in Asgard, and his mother’s bracelet. Asgard was dead; these were the last remaining pieces of it. Even if Thanos had meant to keep half of Thor’s people alive, he’d seen the wreckage of the refugee ship. The odds were everyone was gone. One man alone couldn’t bear the weight of a country. Asgard was dead, and it had died when he’d failed to protect it. Thor closed his eyes and hurled the last bits of his people into the flames, along with the flask in his other hand, a last drink for Valkyrie.  
  
He suddenly wish he’d paid more attention when his mother had explained the rites of his people. When he’d prayed for Odin, he hadn’t had a pyre or offerings or even the proper words. This time, the last time, he would do it right. Despite the alcohol or maybe because of it, the words came easily to him. “Frigga,” he began, realizing just then that despite all this time, he’d never once said a prayer for his mother. “I bid you take your place in the halls of-of Valhalla,” she would go nowhere else, fighting until the end like she had. “There do I ssssee my father, there do I see my mother and my brothers and my sssisters, there do I see the line of my people back t-to the beginning,” they were all there, everyone he’d let die because he wasn’t fit to be king. His words were slurred from the alcohol, but he kept going. “Not shall we mourn but rejoice for those that have died the glorious death,” what about this was glorious? This wasn’t glory it was a slaughter, so many innocents dead and for nothing.  
  
Behind him, someone shouted his name. Natasha. “Thor, what are you doing?!” Others came up next to them: Rogers, Bruce, Rhodey. Thor shook his head. It was too much to explain. Too much suffering, too much weight to bear. He couldn't even begin to find the words to describe it. "I lost..." He started. "I lost it. Everything. I lost it. My... t's lost." There were so many more things he wanted to say, but he'd lost those words too. "I lost it...mjolnir." Somehow that was the one thing he could articulate. Odin had shown him his own power, without the weapon's limitation, but it had still left his hand feeling empty. His fist closed and he looked down in confusion. His hammer should've been there. It had always been there. He stumbled forward, as if mjolnir could be found beyond the flames.  
  
Natasha stepped forward to steady him. “Easy, big guy. We’ll find it. Where’d you see it last?”  
  
Thor frowned, trying to remember. He knew what had happened, it was there on the tip of his tongue. “I...Odin...we were home. Norway, the wizard called it. He was s-saying something about my sister… and then he was gone and she came and…” his voice trailed off as it came back to him: Hela stepping out of that black cloud, crushing his hammer to pieces, Loki desperately shouting to return to Asgard, bringing Hela and its doom with them. Asgard burning, his people burning, cut down like blades of grass. Loki’s bloodshot eyes staring at nothing.  
  
He had to finish, it was the only thing left he could do for his people. “Loki.” he began. “Sssif, Fandral and Hogun and Vol-volstagg. Heimdall. Valkyrie.” They were looking at him now, he could feel their gaze, and he forced himself to look up although he couldn’t meet their faces. “I failed. I wass sssupposed to protect my people but I f-failed. Asgard is dead. I couldn’t…” Thor fell to his knees in front of the pyre without a body. Asgardians didn’t cry, but could he even call himself that anymore? For the others’ sake, he tried to force his grief down but it welled up and spilled over, forcing one shaky sob and then another. The roar of the fire filled the quiet as they stood there, each mourning a loss. “Loki,” his voice cracked; in the end Loki had been his brother, loyal and true and he’d died for it. “I bid you take your place in the halls of Valhalla…” the prayer trailed off as he took a deep, shuddering breath. A tear fell from his good eye and then another. “Loki... I” he began again, but he could barely get the words out. “Brother...”  
  
“Nathaniel.” Natasha’s voice was so quiet the fire almost drowned it out. “Laura. Cooper. Lila.” It took Thor a moment to place the names. Barton’s family.  
  
“Agent Hill. Director Fury.” Rhodey’s names were flat, drained of emotion, but somehow that only betrayed how tired he really was.  
  
“Wanda.” Bruce sounded close to tears himself and when Thor glanced over, he was staring hard at the ground.  
  
“Bucky.” Rogers gazed into the flames, not even trying to hide the grief on his face.  
  
“Vision.”  
  
“T’Challa.”  
  
“Sam.”  
  
“Tony.”  
  
The last name silenced them all, and together they stood and watched the pyre burn until it was nothing more than smoldering embers and even then they stayed, each one mourning in their own way. Thor mumbled his prayers, one for every friend he’d lost. Rogers prayed too, to his own god, head bowed from exhaustion and concentration. Rhodey and Natasha simply stared into the flames, perhaps praying silently or perhaps only quietly accepting what had happened. Bruce sat on Thor’s other side with his knees drawn tightly to his chest. His eyes were closed and to most he would appear to be asleep; the only sign he was awake was the occasional silent word from his mouth. Only when the first hints of red appeared on the horizon did they turn back to the palace, leaving behind their grief on the smoking ashes.


End file.
